Of Scales and Apples
by MegaTJ
Summary: Heartbroken, Spike is turned away from attempting to woo Rarity by the guidance of an emotional embodiment named Star Dancer. Who will she turn his feelings to? And can he even trust her not to lead him to another heartbreak, or worse?
1. Frustrated Failure

Frustrated Failure

Spike stared at his feet on the trip back to the library. Another failed attempt at getting Rarity's attention had been on his mind as he left the Carousel Boutique. He sighed. It had been his seventh attempt over the course of the week. A new record. His mood had been sour ever since he realized that no matter what he tried, it would always end with "Oh, Spike, you shouldn't have", or "You're such a nice dragon" and he would receive a few measly gems for his efforts. Only this time he didn't get a thing.

His failures just kept racking up. The more he thought about it, the more he didn't want to think about it. Once, capturing Rarity's heart seemed like something achievable. Now it he merely fought for a small chance to at least gain her undivided attention.

Spike looked at the path to the library. It wasn't much farther, but he didn't want to go just yet. Twilight and her new assistant would just remind him of his heartbreak. It wouldn't have mattered if he continued or stayed, he would be reminded anyhow. For it seemed that all of the Elements of Harmony had found a new "friend".

Well, that was except for Rarity. It didn't matter, though; love was blossoming all over Equestria. No matter where he turned, he would find another couple happily enjoying ice cream or walking to watch a romantic sunset together.

The dragon sat on a bench to think about his next plan, if he could at all. The only thing that could take his mind from it was the small gem he found wedged in a tree trunk on his way back from Rarity's. It was a ruby. Though small, he could still enjoy its sweet taste. It would be the kind of thing that could cheer him up.

He shrugged; it had been a while since his taste buds had enjoyed the delicate sensation of a ruby. He looked at the mineral and licked his lips. As he carried it to his mouth, he stopped after seeing something in the heart of it. The dragon thought he saw what looked like a small flame in the ruby. He shrugged it off as his tired brain seeing the sunset refracting through it. Once again he brought the gem up to his mouth, but stopped after deciding his stomach's overactive acid wouldn't let him hold it down. He exhaled in anger. He couldn't even eat his sorrow away.

Deciding that it was best he got to the library before Luna's moon got into the air, he left the bench to continue to the library. He held his breath as he entered the library, hoping to look more cheerful than Celestia knew he was on the inside. The foyer was surprisingly vacant for the number of packed carts of books that needed to be shelved. He sure was glad it was his day off; there was no way he could even think of more work after the day he had. From the back room, he heard somepony pushing a cart in his direction. A little waiting revealed that it was Dream Runner, Ponyville's new assistant librarian and Twilight Sparkle's new coltfriend.

"Hey, Spike", greeted the colt brightly as the dragon crossed the room. "How'd it go with Rarity?"

"I don't want to talk about it." was the harsh reply.

"Yikes", Dream Runner commented, "That bad, huh?"

Spike stopped. "It's getting harder with her, Dream", he sighed.

The Pegasus turned his eyes to the floor. "Sorry, I would hug you, but I don't think it would mean as much as Twilight's." He smiled, hoping that the small joke would in some way cheer the dragon up. From his standpoint it didn't look like it. Spike didn't even attempt to drop his frown.

"I'm going to bed", the dragon huffed. He wasn't intentionally giving Dream Runner a hard time, and the pony knew it because it wasn't the first time Spike had come home in a mood inspired by failure. Dream understood the way he felt, never actually having experienced it himself, but knew what it was like to be frustrated from an unreachable goal.

"I'll have a bowl of sapphire flakes waiting for you in the morning", Dream called up the stairs after him.

Spike wanted to smile, and tried his best to now that he had something to look forward to, but it just wasn't going to happen so long as he kept dwelling on his day. One of the good things about his life now that Dream Runner was a part of it was that the colt treated him like a little brother. He was always there to lift some of the burden from Spike's oftentimes weary shoulders. Tomorrow he expected to get a second day off as Dream Runner didn't like when he had to work with depression.

As Spike climbed into his basket, he remembered the ruby he found on his way home. Still unable to eat, he decided to just look at it. It was smaller than he first thought, just barely the size of his largest claw. The light from the window reflected through it, setting the inside ablaze with orange light. It was so pretty that he almost regretted he was going to eat it soon. His mind drifted to what tomorrow might bring. If he did get the day off like he was sort of hoping for, he was probably just going to spend it trying to get out of his sulking disposition. How exactly he was going to do that not even he knew yet. Spike lifted himself off the pillow at the bottom of his basket to reveal his small stash of gems. He pushed the pile aside for the new addition so he could find it with ease later.

He heard the front door open and close downstairs. "I heard what happened from Rose", Twilight said to Dream. "How is he?"

"I think he's a little worse this time", Dream replied, "I don't know how much more he can take. He just went to bed."

"Before seven?" Twilight gasped. "If I didn't swear myself to Pinkie Pie secrecy, I'd talk to Rarity about this."

"If it was my place, I would too."

Spike clamped his blanket around his head to drown out the voices from below. He absolutely hated it when they talked about him and Rarity. It reminded him of his lack of success. He didn't know how long he muted the world out, all he knew was that he did so until he fell asleep. The only reason he knew he had fallen from consciousness was the bizarre dream he had.

The purple dragon found himself standing inside Carousel Boutique, of all places. Thinking it a vivid pipe dream, he stood waiting for Rarity to walk in ready to go out for an evening date. He waited and waited and waited, only to find out that maybe he was standing in a nightmare with the absence of the white unicorn symbolizing his real-world grasp of her love: nonexistent. It felt like hours before something finally happened.

Behind him, Spike heard the light sounds of hoofsteps on the floor. He spun around to find a white pony standing not even ten feet away. This was no ordinary pony, though. He recoiled in fear upon seeing that her face was completely blank, no visible eyes or mouth. With a second, hesitant look, he saw that there was also lacked a mane and tail, leaving just the base of a pony standing in front of him. It stared at him intently. If he didn't know any better he could have thought that it was almost reading him like a book.

Fortunately, it didn't last too much longer. Once the pony, if one could even call it that, was satisfied with studying the dragon, it turned around and left the boutique. For some crazy reason, Spike followed it. He didn't get to see it again. The second he opened the door, everything around him went black. His eyes opened to reveal a darkened room around him. Groggily, he sat up. His dragon vision let him see the clock above Twilight's bed which read three o'clock. He sighed. Everything that had happened in the dream still confused him, but he decided to just sleep on it. Lying back down, he yawned, "Tomorrow's going to be a better day."

_You have no idea Spike_, echoed a voice in his head so softly that not even he could hear it.

**So this is the quick reboot for the story. Thanks to my good reader Dragon Outcast, I've decided to tweak it a little to slow the plot down and add a little foreshadowing for suspense. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!**

**Trivia:**

**This story was written before a few of my first six stories, so you'll probably notice a difference in my writing style and a few things that may not make sense for the first three chapters until I can clean it up.**


	2. Picnic Crusade

Picnic Crusade

Morning came too soon for the distressed dragon. All he wanted to do was stay in bed, but the light coming in from Twilight's open window harassed his eyelids so much that he couldn't possibly get back to sleep. He sat up drowsily, and instantly greeted.

"Good morning, Spike!" Dream said as cheerfully as he could amidst making his bed. "How did you sleep?"

"I think I had a nightmare, but I'm not sure…" he yawned.

"You okay?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah, it was just weird." A brief flash of the pony's blank face scared Spike to full alertness. He played it off as a quick stretch. "Are there still sapphires downstairs?"

Dream raised a brow slyly. "Do I love treasure hunting?"

"Thanks." He hopped out of his basket and jogged down to the first floor, where the newest member of the library frolicked around with Peewee and Owlowiscious. Coal, the firefox that Dream Runner had recently adopted had, in the past week, become a great new addition to the family, having learned early on that the books were not to be eaten or set on fire while keeping the pesky book-munching parasprites away. Spike gave the canine a quick scratch behind the ear as he passed him on the way to the kitchen, where the soft aroma of blue gems pulled him in like a dragon-magnet.

Twilight was too busy with cleaning the oven to notice him when he sat at the table. That wasn't particularly a bad thing. Usually the morning after his Rarity failures brought a lecture from the unicorn about broadening his horizons. Any day he didn't have to deal with that was a day that started off on the right hoof. He wasted no time in eating the sapphires set out for him. He was grateful, for they were aged to perfection. It sure was lucky Dream Runner had brought his mineral expertise into the library when he moved in. While Twilight treated him to the occasional gemstone, she couldn't exactly tell what exactly was ripe and what was so sour that Spike had to force his puckered lips back into their normal shapes so she wouldn't feel bad.

Filling his stomach with the succulent stones of blue slowly emptied his head of all woeful thoughts. With every bite he found himself slipping further and further away from his despair. His claws soon found the bottom of the bowl, and, despite the slight disappointment of no longer having a dragon's equivalent to blueberries, he smiled with a happy sigh. The memories of his dream and even Rarity were finally subdued by the satisfaction of his appetite. He hopped down from the table, muttered an "I'm going out" to Twilight, and left the library for the chilly outside.

The sudden drop in temperature was just what Spike needed to get himself fully awake. He shivered against the cold dew still lingering after the sun rose. It wasn't much of a bother; it actually felt pretty nice against his scales. He heard giggling coming from somewhere near, and when he looked around he found Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon laughing to themselves just near the schoolhouse. The evil grins sculpted to their faces told the dragon they probably had just targeted one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders with bullying words of torture.

Just to make sure, he backtracked their path and sure enough, found a crestfallen Applebloom walking in the opposite direction. Seeing her head almost drag the ground, the dragon quickly stroll up to her. Since he was used to helping out the Crusaders, he already knew what to do.

"Good morning, Applebloom!" he said cheerfully.

"Ain't so good fer me", she responded.

"Why not?"

She turned away from him and started in another direction. Spike didn't give up. He stayed on her hooves and kept it up. "Come on Applebloom. It's alright."

She stopped. "No it ain't."

When he managed to get a glimpse of her face, he saw that she was crying. Whatever those bullies did to her his time it was hardly good. He dug around for something to say, but without knowing what exactly they said to her, he was running blind.

However, Applebloom went on. "Ah ain't never gonna get mah Cutie Mark!" she wailed so loud it left a ring in his ears.

Whether it was impulse or just the fact that she needed comfort, Spike couldn't tell when she flung her hooves around him and sobbed softly into his shoulder. When the shock settled, he patted her back. "Sure you will. You just have to keep trying."

"But Ah try all the time..."

Spike thought about what he could say to make her feel better. The sooner she stopped crying into his shoulder the sooner he would be able to quell his blush. "That just means that all the stuff that didn't get you your Cutie Mark wasn't good enough."

She let him go. "What?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Your Cutie Mark must be really special if you don't have it yet. I mean look at Diamond Tiara. Hers isn't all that special if she got it so early, right?"

Applebloom wiped away her tears. "That makes sense", she giggled, "How can a pony even get a tiara for a Cutie Mark anyways?"

"Must have been real easy. Anypony can wear a tiara."

The filly smiled. "Thanks Spike." She gave him a quick thank you hug and was just about to leave when a thought popped into her head. "Hey, Spike."

"Yeah?"

"Me an' the other Crusaders are havin' a picnic in the park today. Ah'm bringin' enough apples fer one more if ya wanna come with."

The invitation was nice, and he was enjoying his second day off, so he nodded. "Sure, why not?"

The two made small talk along the way to the park, mostly about why the Crusaders were having a picnic on such a nippy day. Applebloom explained to the dragon that they were taking the day off from Crusading as most of the group sustained injuries from a snowboarding trip the day before. The conversation drifted to life on the farm and in the library, then to Spike's trip to Canterlot the week before. Spike had always been friends with the Crusaders, but this was the first time he used his spare time to actually talk with one. It was pretty cool to talk with somepony closer to his age. Usually Twilight and the other ponies he regularly found himself around talked about bills and things like that. Applebloom had nothing to stress over except for getting her Cutie Mark. Surprisingly, he found that really easy to relate to.

"I kinda know what you're going through", Spike told her, "I was the same way during the last dragon migration."

She didn't get to reply because they had finally reached the edge of the large picnic blanket six other ponies were sitting atop.

"It's about time you got here!" Scootaloo exclaimed, "We were starting to think you got into a major battle with six—"

"Seven", the only colt, Cotton Threads corrected.

"Yeah, seven ninja ponies!"

"Ah think Cotton's imagination's startin' t'get to ya, Scootaloo", Applebloom stated with a raised brow. She changed the subject to her follower. "Y'all don't mind if Spike picnics with us, right?"

"That's okay, Ah guess", said the oldest member, Apple Sprout, who was surprisingly not related to Applebloom. "We got plenny o' food."

"That's great!" Applebloom cheered. She plopped down and started passing apples around from her bulging saddlebags.

Spike munched quietly while he waited for somepony to speak up. It was awkward already to show up last minute with Applebloom, let alone bring attention to himself. He used his silence to look around at the bandaged ponies. Nothing looked too serious, though they sported a few large bruises where the bandages failed to reach. He cringed at the thought of what exactly happened during their snowboarding exhibition. For a few minutes nopony said anything, but that was only until the first few bites.

Once their older Pegasus member, Sprinkle, finished her star fruit slices, she spoke up. "Did everypony sleep okay last night?"

A couple of groans went around combined with the rest of the group slowly nodding. Scootaloo, one of the groaners, said, "I had a nightmare I kept falling down a never-ending snowboarding trail…"

"I had a dream I was flying with my snowboard fighting the forces of evil!" cheered Cotton.

"What else do ya dream about?" Apple Sprout's sister Juneberry said sarcastically.

"Fighting evil on a hang glider!"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "That figures."

"Any other weird dreams?" Scootaloo inquired absently to keep the conversation going.

Spike leaned back. "I had one about a faceless pony…" he said to nopony in particular.

"No. Way." Scootaloo deadpanned.

Unfortunately, Sprinkle was reaching for a third juice box that happened to put her in the way of Cotton during an excited spit take. "You mean you dreamed about the Slendermare!?"

"What?"

"The Slendermare!" Scootaloo repeated, "She's like the worst pony to dream about!"

"Doom to all who peers into her formless face!" Cotton chanted.

"Hey!" Applebloom shouted, "Yer startin' t'scare Spike!"

The two accidental tormentors turned to see Spike staring wide-eyed at the whole group. They chuckled apologetically. "Sorry, Spike", Scootaloo said first.

Cotton offered him a cupcake. "Apology cake?"

The dragon shook himself free of the shock of paranoia. He snatched a cupcake from the platter and stuffed away his fear. However, he didn't get to completely forget his dream, whether or not it was up to him to stop thinking about it.

"A pony with no face?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yeah. And no tail and mane either…"

"That sounds like a weird lookin' pony!" laughed Juneberry.

"Not to mention creepy", Scootaloo whispered to Cotton, who nodded in agreement.

"Kinda sounds like a ponikin", Sweetie Belle mused, "I think I remember Twilight saying something about those kinda dreams, but I can't remember much."

"Major bummer", Scootaloo commented.

"I'll just ask her when I get back", Spike said.

From that point the group stopped talking about faceless ponies and instead turned the corner of Hero Avenue when Applebloom mentioned what Spike said to her just before going to the picnic. Everypony had to keep Apple Sprout from rising and tracking down the bullies as she positioned herself as the CMC's big sister and protector since she was the biggest and oldest of them. Applebloom made extra sure she got the point of how nice he was about it across to such an extent that by the time she was done, a red patch of blush cultivated across the dragon's face. What made it deepen was the fact that the yellow filly would not let a single drop of modesty upset the pool of praise.

"Ah'm jus' sayin' ya really made mah day better, Spike", she said to ease the embarrassment. "Thanks."

Spike managed to crack a smile. "You're welcome."

"Welp, what now, y'all?" asked Apple Sprout to turn the conversation away from Spike's chivalry.

"Big Brother's planning a dinner party!" Cotton exclaimed randomly.

Sprinkle sat up. "When?"

"This weekend. We used to have lots of those back in Trottingham!"

"Cool. Who's on the invite?" asked Scootaloo.

"Anypony who wants to come! There's gonna be plenty of food!"

After that little bit of conversation, the picnic blanket grew boring. If the Crusaders weren't so beat up from their last adventure, they might have played a few games to get the excitement going again. On that note, they had no choice but to pack up and head home. Applebloom decided to go to the library with Spike, mainly because he was rewarded with nearly all of the leftovers for helping her out. She carried half of the food, and he carried the other half. Neither could dig up anything to say, so the walk was quiet. That wasn't so bad; the day was pretty nice now that the sun was out. The air had warmed up considerably, but not so much as it does during the summer.

Whenever Spike looked back to make sure he wasn't leaving Applebloom in the dust, he could have sworn he saw her staring at him. He shrugged it off since he was leading her to the library. There was really nothing else to look at anyways, and she was still a little grateful for earlier. The filly managed to catch up when the library came into view. Apparently the silence wasn't just getting to Spike, because she said something that really caught the dragon off guard.

"Hey, Spike, ya wanna stay over this weekend?"

He blinked. "Uh, why?"

"'Cuz Ah'm havin' mah first slumber party an' Ah'm invitin' as many ponies as Ah can." She seemed a little nervous, and the nervousness managed to jump the gap to Spike, who was hesitant to reply. "Ah mean it's okay if ya don' want to. Ah jus' thought ya might wanna get outta the library for a night or two."

"I don't know, Applebloom", Spike said uneasily, "Weekends are pretty busy for us. We usually have a lot of books and scrolls to organize."

She frowned in disappointment. "Oh…that's okay then…Ah don' wanna mess yer schedule up."

The near sadness in her voice caused him to quickly reconsider. "But I'll talk to Twilight about it." He smiled. "Maybe I can get out of it."

Her face instantly brightened. "Thanks Spike."

They made it to the library soon after that, and when they dropped the food off on the kitchen table, said their goodbyes. Spike was relieved to see the filly leave happy, but was still unsure of the slumber party idea. He sat in front of the large pile of food and rubbed his temples in frustrated thought. Who knew helping a girl's feelings would lead to this? Not that it was a bad thing. No, Spike just didn't see any of this coming and was now stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

Twilight walked in. She saw Spike rubbing his forehead on the table just on the other side of a mountain of food and was immediately curious. "Spike? Where did all of this food come from?"

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders", he answered without looking up. "I made Applebloom feel better after Diamond Tiara made fun of her and got all of this."

Hearing what he did peaked the unicorn's interests. She pulled up a chair next to him. "Why are you so down then? Usually one who gets so much food has a reason to smile."

"She invited me to a slumber party…"

"Applebloom?"

He nodded.

Smiling, Twilight asked, "Why don't you go?"

"This weekend is supposed to be really busy for the library…"

"Oh, Spike", she laughed, "Don't worry about that. Dream and I can take care of it by ourselves."

"Really?" he asked no more enthusiastically than before.

"Yes. It won't be a problem for us, Spike. You can go spend time with your friends without having to work while you do it."

He finally brought his head up from the tabletop. An unclear look still crossed his face, but he did look pretty definite now. "I guess I'll go."

"Great, I'll make sure you're ready when the time comes. Now don't you think you should let that filly know you'll be there?"

He nodded. "I'll be right back." Before he set out again into the warming day, Spike climbed the stairs. He uncovered his collection of gems and picked out the ruby from the evening before. It glowed against the sunlight shining in from the window he held it up to. It really was pretty, and from what he knew about them, this one would surely be delicious. Deciding to eat it after seeing Applebloom, he tucked it under his scales. If he would have taken a longer, or even second look at the red gem, he would have noticed the featureless pony staring back at him.

_Soon, my draco friend…_

"What?" Spike turned around at the sound of the mare's voice.

"I didn't say anything." Twilight said on her way by.

"Must be hearing things…" With that in mind, he ignored the soft giggling sound he was unaware was actually echoing from the still-glowing gem under his scales.

**Man, these delays are really getting on my nerves! College! So much of my time is taken up! On the bright side, I am becoming a stronger artist because of it…**

**There's a new poll up on my profile, so go have a vote at it if you will, please.**

**Trivia:**

**Spike and Applebloom is the only canon couple that I've actually come to support. As I was thinking of the concept, I found it hard to write without the inclusion of an OC, and that's when I came up with our mysterious character.**

**You might recognize the blazing canine from two previous chapters way back in the stories of Season 1. Coal was just barely mentioned on Dream's birthday party in The Magic of Dreams and made a small appearance in Kindness is the Cure.**


End file.
